SpaceX Shows Us What It Will Look Like When the Dragon Capsule Lands on Mars

SpaceX has long claimed that they will someday assist humanity in setting up colonies on Mars (or nuking it, as the case may be), and while they haven't yet achieved the goal of reaching Mars, their state-of-the-art Dragon capsule brings them one step closer. Now, they've released artistic conceptions of Dragon V2 landing on Mars that are as scientifically accurate as possible, and show us exactly what it would look like if the Dragon ever reached the Red Planet:

The images, released on SpaceX's Flickr account, show the Martian landscape as a red-tinted, dusty wasteland, inspired by images from NASA"s Curiosity.

SpaceX has announced that test flights on the Dragon capsule have begun, and that they intend to send a robotic version to transport Martian soil samples collected by NASA's 2020 Mars rover back to Earth. The mission, called "Red Dragon," is only in the concept stage, but SpaceX is confident that the technology will be ready by 2020 and that they will be able to facilitate the full analysis of Martian soil, and possibly the discovery of ancient life forms.

A manned mission would likely require a functioning Falcon 9 reusable rocket, which has failed spectacularly more than once so far. But each attempt inches closer and closer to success, and once they are able to make it work, a mission to Mars will be much more feasible.